What makes a strong design?

A strong or a good design does not mean how good the design looks, it focuses on its performance, astonishment, convertibility and how I fulfill the main purpose. It relies on few external factors and inputs as possible and they are easy to manipulate and measure to achieve an expected output. A good design is always the simplest possible working solution.
My 1^st journal on what makes a strong design mainly focuses on Dieter Rams 10 principles.  This has helped me understand what a good design literally means. 

As what this famous German industrial designer says a good design is honest, it does not attempt to manipulate buyers and users with promises it cannot keep. He even make a distinction between the common “less is more” and his strongly advise “less, but better” highlighting the fact that this approach focuses on the important aspects thus, the products are not burdened with non-essential. The desirable result would then be purer and simpler.

The Functionality, sustainability, quality, its different style, how practical it is and the economic conditions of a product is also a main part of a strong design. Like on example what my professor gave about having no doors or windows for a room.

A good design can be very innovative or it might just get the job done. Innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology and can never be an end in itself. How functional is a strong design? Useful design fills its extended function it could be both primary and secondary function and solve all the problems. A good design emphasis the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that possibly detracts from it.

Only well-executed objects can integral to its usefulness because products used every day have an effect on people and their well-being.

From a visual and aesthetic point of view, the answer is entirely subjective to the untrained eye; a design either works or it doesn't. But behind the creation of every design …be it a car, a book or a website, there is one crucial question: “Is it fit for purpose?” Design is far from skin-deep and requires objective analysis and thought.

Leading, influencing & motivating

In this lecture we learned deep into the various roles of a leader and their qualities that make a leader that others will want to follow, to understand what inspires current leadership behaviors in an organization. We even examined he different leadership type and styles.

Leadership in practice: management is the process of decision making to make the most of all resources “good managers make things happen ”. it is at the core of all managerial and supervisory activities by giving vision and direction to their followers, they energies to set and enforce absolute standards of behavior, presentation, attitude and performance. Leaders mainly promote positive, harmonious and productive working relations with their employers within the business.
Leadership types:

Ø  Traditional

Ø  Known leaders

Ø  Appointed leaders

Ø  Bureaucratic leader

Ø  Functional/expert leader

Ø Informal leader

There are some approaches to people management:

Ø Classic approach-

·        Lower-level management(efficiency leads to productivity ).

·        Comprehensive analysis of management (developed by Henri Fayol).

·        Criticisms : neglects to consider critical interpersonal skills.

Ø Behavioral approach-

·        Hawthorne studies(1924-1932)

·        Examined the working environment to improve productivity.

Ø Management science approach 

The main reasons productivity improved:

1.     The subjects found working in the room enjoyable

2.     The new supervisory relationship during the experiment allowed the subjects to work freely, without fear

3.     The subjects realized that they were taking place in an important an interesting study

4.     The subjects seemed to become friendly as a group

The human variable

Understanding the human variables is key to motivation and influencing. Employees affect an organization productivity and harmony plus support within social groups was evident in both Hawthrown Studies. Inspired the Human relations movement –a people oriented approach + understanding employee’s needs. They even inspire Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Considered the role of a leader and how to inspire employees to work in tangent was the main topic in this lecture of mine.

Retail management

Retail managers are responsible for the day-to-day running of stores or departments. The aim of any retail manager is to maximize profit while minimizing costs. Retail managers ensure promotions are accurate and merchandised to the company’s standards, staff is fully versed on the target for the day and excellent customer care standards are met.

Depending on the size of the store, and company structure, retail managers may also be required to deal with human resources, marketing, logistics, information technology, customer service and finance.

The various processes which help the customers to procure the desired merchandise from the retail stores for their end use refer to retail management. Retail management includes all the steps required to bring the customers into the store and fulfill their buying needs.

Retail management makes shopping a pleasurable experience and ensures the customers leave the store with a smile. In simpler words, retail management helps customers shop without any difficulty.

As retailers face ever increasing challenges, more than ever choosing and implementing effectively the right expansion strategies for your business is crucial. We work closely with you to understand the key drivers and risks for your individual businesses, helping you to develop the most commercially appropriate routes to market.

The  term management has been defined in many ways. In general, management is the process of getting things accomplished with and though people by guiding and motivating their effects towards common objectives, successful  managers will assure you that their employees are their most important asset. Most successful managers recognize that they are only as good as the people they supervise. In most endeavors, one person can accomplish relatively little therefore, individuals join forces with others to attain mutual goals. In a business, top-level managers are responsible for achieving the goals of the organization, but this requires the efforts of all subordinate managers and employees. Those who hold  supervisory positions significantly influence the effectiveness with which people work together and use resources to ­attain in short, the managerial role of a supervisor is to make sure that assigned takes are accomplished with and through the help of employees.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.
Companies need to answer to two aspects of their operations. 1. The quality of their management - both in terms of people and processes (the inner circle). 2. The nature of, and quantity of their impact on society in the various areas.
Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

1. Social responsibility becomes an integral part of the wealth creation process - which if managed properly should enhance the competitiveness of business and maximize the value of wealth creation to society.
2. When times get hard, there is the incentive to practice Corporate Social Responsibility more and better - if it is a philanthropic exercise which is peripheral to the main business, it will always be the first thing to go when push comes to shove.

Operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. A concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment. A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.

But as with any process based on the collective activities of communities of human beings (as companies are) there is no 'one size fits all'. In different countries, there will be different priorities, and values that will shape how business act. And even the observations above are changing over time. The US has growing numbers of people looking towards core business issues.
 It is a key difference, when many business leaders feel that their companies are ill equipped to pursue border’s societal goals, and activists argue that companies have no democratic legitimacy to take such roles. That particular debate will continue.

Culture, context & Communication

In my lecture on Consumer Culture, context & communication I learned    how the culture is defined and developed in an organization. Even the importance of communication and how it is processed inside the firm by exploring the communication medium, the employee’s behavior even their well-being within the work place. In the other side how the professionals interact towards their employees with their managerial style. Mainly “The way the things are done in the organization”.
What is competing values?
Competing values is about understanding how to appreciate conflicting values and integrate them successfully so that the organization is open to collaborate and growth.
The goal is that leaders should become adroit at two conflicting values (DeGraff identifies a total of four competing values). We train leaders so that they develop the ability to oversee teams that work towards opposite goals, integrating them when the timing is right, so that each value can be developed successfully. The result is companies that are creative, while meeting high quality control standards and that are open and collaborative, but also maintain their competitive edge.

The communication process:
effective communication is vital to all businesses. The communication process involves: sender, message, medium, receiver and feedback.
There are a number of parts to any communication. For instance, sending a text message involves:

-the sender - the person writing the text
-the receiver - the person to whom the message is addressed
-the content of the message - for example, news, information, an invitation
-the format of the message - in this example it is text but many other different ways are possible
-the communication channel through which the message is sent - in this case a mobile phone network
-The medium - how the message will be sent, in this case it is in writing.

This is how communication manifests in an organization.

Sexism in our modern world

Since the beginning of history, sexism has always been a prominent barrier between sexes. The notion that women are not on the same level as men always been in existence, this belief stems from the creation of Eve, through a rib of Adam. From scripture, Eve’s roll was to be considered as a servant and temptress, the sole reason why Adam ate the apple. Consequently Eve is blamed as being the reason mankind is not living in paradise. Sexism has continued throughout ancient history and continues occur in our own environment to this day. Sexism affects our life even in today’s society. Sexism by definition is discrimination by members of one sex against the other, based on the assumption that one sex is superior whether physically, psychologically, or intellectually rather than their individual merits. Discrimination of gender is demonstrated in jobs, sport, school, advertising, etc. Sexism still exists in many cases when people are judged by their gender in today’s society. For example when playing sports it is more likely for a group of boys to let a boy play rather than a girl because they would assume she can’t because she is a female.

Sexism also exists when people assume that certain things are meant for a certain gender, for example that woman belongs in the kitchen.
Sexual discrimination still exists but its occurrence has drastically reduced. Ego plays a major role in sexism too, most en cannot handle being positioned under a women possessing authority, while women feel the need to gain authority to be taken seriously.
Even education plays a major role in this concept as education given to men or women may affect the factors in which they choose to use sexism in their own way for their own morale. Sexism against women allows men with a lower education than the women to get a better paying job than the women.
Sexism is a simple ideology that one sex is superior to the other the term is generally used to refer to male prejudice and discrimination against women any attitude and actions which overtly or covertly discriminate against women or men on the grounds of their sex or gender. We even know about sexist advertisement of the past. Happy housewives could not drive cars but could push vacuum cleaners. Time has changed; women are not anymore forced to be slaves of men in many societies. They are allowed to to be educated and become independent most countries in the world adopted United Nation’s The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW). But sexism will still exist.

Sexism in modern societies is reflected in attitudes that reinforce the sub-ordinated status of women. It’s an ideology that justifies prejudice or discrimination based on sex it results in the challenging of women into statuses considered appropriate for women and their exclusion from statuses considered appropriate for men. Sexist attitude also tend to “objectify” women, which mean they treat women as an object of sex. They do not consider women as individuals worthy of full measure of respect and equal treatment in social institutions.

“Woman is not born: she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed she becomes symbol of this, symbol of that; mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so.”
– Andrea Dworkin.

Planning, decision-making and Control

8^th of October, my 4^th class of ‘Principles of Management’ the lesson was on ‘Planning, Decision Making and Control’ in Fashion Marketing. Prof. Northway gave a lecture on the establishment of different plans undertaken by the managers, measurement of plans, considering the role of decision making in planning and determination of successful implementation of a plan; controlled to ensure a successful business. He explained about planning, its necessities and implementation. I came to know that there are different types of plans (business plan, strategic plan and operational plans). I learnt about ‘planning to grow businesses on Managerial role and about SMART measurement.

Specific: a clear statement with a specific target.

Measurable: to illustrate how progress is being made.

Achievable: it should be challenging and attainable.

Reward: achieving the objective should be rewarding.

Time: the objective should be time specific and of a certain standard.

During the class, Prof. Northway asked us to watch the video ‘Henry Mintzberg on Decision Making’ for further information. The video was enlightening and I understood the different ways of management practice.
What I learned from this is that every business enterprise has its own predetermined objectives to be achieved. In order to achieve the objectives in the best possible manner, it requires a lo of mental exercise based upon imagination, foresight and judgment for deciding the tasks to be undertaken and the techniques to be adopted. No doubt, the success lies in the effective and sound planning, which undoubtly determines the future course of action.

In case, we do not plan our future activities, we shall pursue disorderly line of action; adopt ‘hit or miss’ method and meet the failure. We shall identify the mistakes committed in the process of action at a very late stage after washing a lot of resources. It emphasizes that the efficient management must foresee the future determine the goal, take into consideration its available resources, socio-economic environment and plan its course of future action.

Definition of planning;

“Planning I  mental predisposition to do things in orderly way, to think, before acting and to act in the light of facts rather than guess.”-Urwick

“Planning is deciding the best alternative among others to perform different managerial operations in order to achieve the predetermined goal.”-Henry Fayol

“Planning is selecting and relating of facts in the visualization and formation of proposed activities believed necessary to achieve desired results.”-George R.Terry

“Planning is a thinking process, the organized foresight, the vision based on fact and experience, that is required for intelligent action.”-Alford and Beaty